GINKGOPHYTE

any member of the division Ginkgophyta, a group of gymnospermous plants of particular interest to paleobotanists. Two of the three genera of ginkgophytes, Ginkgoites and Baiera, are extinct. The third genus, Ginkgo, has only one member, Ginkgo biloba, commonly called the ginkgo tree. It is also known as the maidenhair tree because of the resemblance of its bilobed leaves to those of the maidenhair fern. G. biloba may be the oldest living seed plant, and it is regarded by some as one of the wonders of the world. Ernest M. Gifford Additional reading A general treatment of the ginkgophytes can be found in Peter H. Raven, Ray F. Evert, and Susan E. Eichhorn, Biology of Plants, 4th ed. (1986). Wilson N. Stewart, Paleobotany and the Evolution of Plants (1983), offers a more detailed account of the fossil record of Ginkgo.